UNIVERSITY OF GUYANA

Assignment No. 002

April 8, 2015

Department of Civil Engineering

Faculty of Technology

The Burning Of Fossil Fuels Is Not the

Main Reason for Global Warming

EMN 3201: Literature Review Lecturer: Mr. M. Kanhai

By: Jaikeshan TAKCHANDRA

Reg #: 13/0933/1323

EMN 3201 Research Methodology

13/0933/1323

1

1.0 Literature review

1.1 Background During the day, the earth is warmed by incoming radiation from the sun and cooled at night by

outgoing radiation. Ideally, this effectively corresponds to the earth being neither warmed up nor

cooled down, in respect of equilibrium. However, while incoming radiation is able to penetrate the

earths atmosphere (mainly nitrogen and oxygen), outgoing radiation is trapped by a blanket of gas in the atmosphere (specifically the stratosphere). This property of the gases allow them to act

like a greenhouse and they are thus referred to as greenhouse gases (GHGs). Without this

greenhouse effect, the earth will be 33C cooler than its current average temperature rendering earth uninhabitable (Waugh, 2005).

During the last two centuries, there has been an increase in global temperatures that can be argued

as being related to the greenhouse effect i.e. the earth is being able to trap more energy from the sun thus heating up.

1.2 Rationale Scientists have spent a great deal of time over the last decades trying to determine what is causing

global warming. They have examined influences from natural events that promote these climatic

conditions and have concluded that the amount and pattern of global warming cannot be explained

by these factors alone. One way, and perhaps the only, is to consider anthropogenic activities that

propagate global warming. These include the burning of fossil fuels and release of aerosols,

increase in world population and business activities and the growth of the agricultural and

industrial sectors. Many scientists argue that the burning of fossil fuels and release of carbon

dioxide (CO2) is the main cause for global warming. But, is this true?

The following chapters examine an alternative route to explain global warming, based on other

natural and manmade activities. They are perhaps contributing factors that add up to the total effect

of global warming, and the incidence of one provides for the development of another.

1.3 The warming paradox The earth, in its 4.6 billion years of revolving around the sun, has experienced an ever

evolving diversification in life forms and physical nature. It is thought, with archeological

and carbon dating proofs, that the earth was once frozen and completely covered in ice

about 650 million years ago. Compared to its present state of thermal diversity, the

evidence suggests that the earth has been warming up for millions of years in the past

(Richard et al., 2007). The National Aeronautics and Space Association (NASA) has

conducted studies that explain the earth being frozen and thawed before in the past, and its

current thermal state is perhaps another cycle of the freeze-thaw system. This implies that

there exists a thermal imbalance in the earths equilibrium, as ironic as it sounds. Based on the theory of evolution, which forms the basis for greenhouse effect, the earth is cooling

down from its surface inwards from the time it was merely gas and dust at the dawn of its

formation. Therefore the melting of a vast majority of the ice 650 million years ago can be

thought of as being caused by the warming up of the surface of the earth i.e. global warming. This warming effect can be dated back to 650 million years ago and beyond, and

who is it to say that now, the earth has reached a state of thermal equilibrium, where the

EMN 3201 Research Methodology

13/0933/1323

2

heat it loses from its core is equally balanced by the heat developed from global warming

and the greenhouse effect? Newtowns Law of Thermal Cooling can scientifically illustrate that the exponential rate of thermal increase on the earth does not correlate to the modern

human era, and suggests to a reasonable extent that earth is still warming up.

The flaw in this finding is that the theories do not cater for the higher than predicted rates

of warming since it would cause incongruence with the original hypothesis. It is worthy to

note that perhaps human activities, as will be seen in the coming topics, are speeding up

the warming up of the earth (Peterson & Rohrer, 2015).

1.4 Other GHGs Similar research on this topic has revealed is that there are several GHGs that are capable

of heat trapping and global warming. Some of these are water vapour, methane (from

animal and solid waste), nitrous oxide (from agriculture farmlands and fertilizers) and

chlorofluorocarbons, CFCs (from air conditioning, aerosols and foams). The

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), through the National Geographics environmental forums have identified that these gases have different heat trapping abilities

and is found in a collective amount totalling almost a quarter of the total world atmospheric

GHGs concentration. This means that more than 20% by volume of the GHGs are CFCs,

methane and nitrous oxide all together. The IPCC also describes methane as producing

twenty times more warming than CO2, nitrous oxide as being three hundred times more

powerful than CO2 and CFCs (which have been banned in many parts of the world) as

being on the magnitude of a thousand times more powerful at trapping heat than CO2. CO2

is calculated as being 72% by composition of all greenhouse gases (Waugh, 2005), but the

power of the other GHGs can collectively add up to be significantly more than expected.

While the large volume of CO2 might be an overriding factor when considering the total

amounts of GHGs in the atmosphere, present day conditions are leading to an increase in

the amounts of nitrous oxide and methane to fulfill the demands of an exponentially

growing population and highly stressed demands for food from the agriculture markets.

Moreover, large cities such and Mexico and Rio de Jinero disposing colossal amounts of

garbage every minute adding to methane release, and the ever expanding need to provide

more air conditioning and cool cities in response to rising global temperatures is adding

more CFCs to the atmosphere.

1.5 Urbanisation and albedo In the early twentieth century, the developed nations of the world experienced large

construction booms that have continued to flourish until the present day as population

continues to expand. In response, the need to construct new housing, commercial offices

and large skyscrapers for trade and business, large and complex networks for road, parking

lots and tarmacs, and parks for recreational purposes have become utmost importance. This

has largely interfered with the reflective and absorptive nature of the ground by allowing

more incoming sunlight to be reflected back into the atmosphere (albedo ratio) and by

allowing greater retention of heat that remains even after sunset. The causes cites to be well

over 3C -5C hotter than normal areas and has become a work prohibitive factor in some

cities such as Sao Paulo, Brazil. When all the albedo surfaces are added up globally, a large

EMN 3201 Research Methodology

13/0933/1323

3

area to reflect massive amount of sunlight is revealed which aids in the amount of heat

being trapped. Minus these surfaces, the heat will be directly absorbed into the earth

lithosphere leading to cooler cities (Pickering & Owen, 1994).

1.6 Deforestation Many scientist who believe that CO2 release as a result of the burning of fossil fuels, think

that it can be conquered by recycling this CO2 especially since the world solely depends

of fossil fuels for energy source. The only system that provides large scale recycling of

CO2 is photosynthesis, via forest and ecosystems of plants and trees. A tree can recycle

one ton of CO2 throughout its lifetime (Evans, 2014) multiply this by the millions of trees nationally, the fifty tons ((et.al)Canadell, 2007) of excess CO2 release each year can

be significantly combatted. Sadly, thousands of trees are being but down each day for use

in lumber, paper, medicinal and agricultural productions, without being replaced. There are

a number of protocols that have been developed globally to reduce the amount of trees

being cut down but the destruction is beyond repair in an effective timeframe.

As a result, the rate at which CO2 can be recycled into oxygen is drastically reduced to the

point where sustainable management and reforestation of trees will only prevent the

remaining reserves from being depleted.

1.7 Synergistic approach to global warming activities Synergism is a concept that describes the combined effects of a phenomenon or system as

being greater than the sum of their separate effects. An approach to explain the greenhouse

effect on global warming is to consider the combined effects of the aforementioned

activities in relation to human activities. The postulation that human activities has a large

influence on the propagation of global warming effects is seen in the works of Peterson and

Rohrer - the increase in population and industrialization activities are fuelling global

warming, or rather speeding it up. Urbanization is largely increasing the amount of albedo,

making cities hotter and is providing more cloud formation that traps heat. Large amounts

of solid waste from these cities, in dump sites and garbage disposal systems are producing

more and more methane gas. The need to provide proper ventilation and sanitation aerosols

is increasing the usage of CFCs and other powerful greenhouse gases in air conditioning

units in order to stay cool. The growing demand for food is increasing the use of fertilizers

and livestock rearing that in turn increases nitrous oxide and methane contents on a large

scale. Deforestation is slowly depleting the recycling rate of CO2 in the atmosphere, and

altogether, the depletion of the ozone layer by the same is allowing more sunlight in the

form of high energy radio wave to penetrate out atmosphere effectively heating up the earth

more. This, coupled with the devastating greenhouse effects of the burning of fossil fuels

to produce energy, is releasing large amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere thus proliferating

the effects of global warming.

EMN 3201 Research Methodology

13/0933/1323

4

References

(Style: Harvard Anglia 1st Edition)

I. (ET.AL)CANADELL, 2007. PNAS. NY: UCS.

II. EPA, 2014. Causes of Climate Change. [Online] Available at:

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/causes.html [Accessed 31 March 2015].

III. EVANS, E., 2014. Trees. [Online] Available at:

http://www.ncsu.edu/project/treesofstrength/treefact.htm [Accessed 1 April 2015].

IV. JENKINS, A., SHAFTEL , H. & JACKSON , , 2015. A blanket around Earth. [Online] Available

at: http://climate.nasa.gov/causes/ [Accessed 29 March 2015].

V. KUMAR, R., 2011. Research Methodology - a step-by-step guide for beginners. 3rd ed. New

Delhi: SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd.

VI. PACHAURI, R.K. & REISINGER , A., 2007. Contributino of Working Groups i,ii & iii to the

Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change. IPCC Fourth

Assessment Report: Climate Change 2007. Geneva, Switzerland: IPCC.

VII. PETERSON, A.-K. & ROHRER, J., 2015. The main cause of global warming. [Online] Available

at: http://timeforchange.org/main-cause-of-global-warming-solutions [Accessed 31 March

2015].

VIII. PICKERING, C. & OWEN, L., 1994. Global Environmental Issues. NY: Routledge.

IX. RICHARD, B., LENTON, T. & WILLIAMS, H., 2007. Neoproterzoic 'snowball Earth'

glaciations and the evolution of altruism. UK: Univesity of East Anglia Uni. of East Anglia.

X. WAUGH, D., 2005. Geography: An Integrated Approach. Thirds ed. London: Nelson Thornes.